WelcomeProf Martina Schraudner, Head of Department, Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Technical University Berlin, and Director of Responsible Research and Innovation Unit, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany

Chair: Prof Curt Rice, Rector, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway; Chair of the Committee on Gender Balance in Research and Head of the board of Current Research Information System in Norway

Chair: Prof Curt Rice, Rector, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway, Chair of the Committee on Gender Balance in Research and Head of the board of Current Research Information System in Norway

The NordForsk strategy for gender equality policy in Nordic countries Prof Marja Makarow, Vice-President for Research, Academy of Finland - the Finnish Research Council and Chair of the Board, NordForsk, Finland

Europe is leading the world in the effort to make science more aware of and responsive to the consequences of gender inequality and gender bias in science practice and knowledge. The Summit will advance understanding of when, how and why gender issues in research can produce different outcomes for women and men, and, like its predecessors, it will demonstrate important intellectual, societal and economic benefits of gender mainstreaming. The Summit takes place in Berlin and precedes the Falling Walls celebration as a reminder that gender inequality is a ‘wall’ that also must fall. GS7-Europe will demonstrate how to apply the gender lens to improve effectiveness of research and innovation, and how to transform policy context through strategic, high-level policy alliances to enable lasting change to take place.

Day 1- Friday, 6 November 2015: The benefits of gender equal and gender sensitive research and innovation

The aim of this part of the programme is to improve understanding how the structural basis of gender inequality in science is collectively endorsed within research cultures and entrenched within science institutions. Discussion will focus on the relationship between research excellence and the circumstances that differentially affect women’s and men’s participation, engagement, and advancement in science. Evidence shows general bias that favours the success of men, which is clearly a concern for women but also for the quality of science practice.

8:00-9:00 Registration

9:00-11:00 Plenary 1

Opening

Welcome- Five years after the genSET Consensus ReportProf Martina Schraudner, Head of Department, Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Technical University Berlin, and Director of Responsible Research and Innovation Unit, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany

Evidence shows that there are many pathways to excellence, and also that the belief in meritocracy (as the norm) is widely shared and deeply institutionalized in science. It is generally assumed that those with the requisite training, experience, and personal motivation will succeed in their science careers. This session presents new evidence that challenges this assumption, and the perception that science has effective means to objectively judge individual excellence. It calls for fresh institutional action to re-assess performance indicators and quality criteria used to evaluate and judge individual merit, and how they are applied in practice.

Chair: Prof Curt Rice, Rector, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway; Chair of the Committee on Gender Balance in Research and Head of the board of Current Research Information System in Norway

Gender equality advancements in the German research landscapeProf Martina Schraudner, Head of Department, Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Technical University Berlin, and Director of Responsible Research and Innovation Unit, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Germany

Opportunities for advancement in science careers are strongly linked to demonstration of good publication record but increasingly also to the success in securing research funding. Evidence of bias in the assessment of scientific excellence includes demonstrations of male applicants’ higher chance of success; evaluators tending to score more highly research that is similar to their own; and misconceptions of the role of sex-gender analysis in study design, even when they are clearly necessary. This session examines the different actions that research funders can take to ensure objectivity and fairness of the processes and practices used in the assessment of research excellence, and prevent biased outcomes in how research resources are accessed and utilized.

The Gender Summit platform was set up in Europe in 2011. Since then the Summit has evolved into several regionally focused platforms: Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia Pacific. In the process, the Summit has created a global community of experts and practitioners. The aim of this session is to share the regional achievements and global aspirations of the Gender Summit mission to advance gender equality in science practice and integration of gender dimension in research and innovation.

Plans for GS11 North America in November 2017 in MontrealSerge Villemure, Director, Scholarships, Fellowships and Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada

15:45-16:15 Break

16:15-17:45 Parallel sessions: Theme and Topic Descriptions

These sessions are designed to communicate new research studies, methodologies, and results in specific areas

This session examines the various levels at which human differences can manifest themselves; how these differences can be represented, analysed and understood; and how their significance can be translated to inform and improve outcomes of biomedical research for women, men, other social/ethnic/racial groups, or, indeed, individuals within these groups (as in relation to personalised medicine, for instance).

Sex differences in risk factors for cardiovascular disease: large-scale meta-analyses summarising all available evidenceDr Sanne Peters, Research Fellow in Epidemiology, The George Institute for Global Health, Nuffield Department of Population Health, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

The session will be chaired by Prof Isabelle Vernos, Member of the ERC Scientific Council and Chair of the ERC Working Group on Gender Balance. The session will include presentations from ERC Principal Investigators and panel members discussing gender funded research and will also provide insights into the work of the ERC Scientific Council Working Group on Gender Balance.

The aim of this session is to explore the cross cutting impacts produced by mainstreaming gender into science knowledge making, development of human capital, and into organisational practices, with such benefits as improved deployment of creative talent, innovation performance, research and innovation cultures, and knowledge making capacity.

This session presents new research and analysis in the area of gender bias with the focus on its impact on science careers of women, men, and/or particular minority groups. This may include investigation of how gender bias manifests itself, impacts on decision-making, influences criteria for advancement, and how it can be challenged and eliminated, etc.

This session presents new research exploring the benefits of scientific inclusion and diversity, e.g. in science workforce, in scientific cultures, in research priorities, and in the application and communication of science knowledge, as drivers of research and innovation ideas.

One size fits it all? Perceptions of young male and female researcher on career perspectives in STEMProf Carmen Leicht-Scholten, Head of Department, Gender and Diversity in Engineering (GDI), Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technical University RWTH Aachen, Germany

Gender, Science, Technology and Innovation in Argentina: between facts and the mirage of equalityProf Gloria Bonder, Director of the Gender, Society and Policies Area of FLACSO Argentina (Latin American School of Social Sciences, Argentina

This session examines a variety of policy actions, which target research, innovation and development goals and, either directly or indirectly, look towards science and technology as holding the key to delivering societal wellbeing and sustainable economies. The session will discuss how gender is incorporated and evaluated in Horizon 2020, which forms part of the EU2020 political strategy; the success of research funding gender equality policies in Sweden; and the need to introduce much stronger awareness of gender research into the implementation plans of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure that all objectives of all 17 SDGs are scrutinised from a gender perspective.

Gender equality is a core value of the European Union and gender mainstreaming has been one of the key policy instrument used to advance it. With the recent inclusion of gender as a criterion of success in Horizon 2020 and in ERA, science has, finally, joined the policy areas targeted for gender mainstreaming actions. This session will discuss how to ensure that policy interventions produce the desired outcomes and how to demonstrate the benefits of institutionalising gender mainstreaming in science.

Chair: Prof Curt Rice, Rector, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway, Chair of the Committee on Gender Balance in Research and Head of the board of Current Research Information System in Norway

Gender mainstreaming in 41 Swedish governments agenciesLillemor Dahlgren, Head of Operations, Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Facilitated Q&A

11:00-11:30 Break

11:30-13:30 Plenary 5

Panel 5: Realising the full scope of policy impact through strategic alliances among key players

Gender mainstreaming in the context of science is a demanding strategy, which requires policymakers and science leaders to adopt new perspectives, acquire new expertise, and change their established operating procedures, if science is to represent equal opportunity for women and men to participate in, succeed in, and benefit from its endeavours. Governments, Higher Education institutions, national academies, learned societies and research funders can individually and jointly advance equality and diversity in science. This session examines the role of strategic policy alliances, which can achieve greater impact and sustainable change by utilizing valuable synergies between different policy agendas and by demonstrating leadership and consensus that improvements are needed and can be achieved.

The NordForsk strategy for gender equality policy in Nordic countriesProf Marja Makarow, Vice-President for Research, Academy of Finland - the Finnish Research Council and Chair of the Board, NordForsk, Finland

Gendered Innovations: the new positions paper from LERU (League of European Research Universities)Prof Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Rector of Leiden University and Chair of LERU Gender Equality Group

Women in Science: Internationalization, Academic Role Orientation, and Productivity. New Large-Scale Evidence from European Universities in 11 CountriesProf Marek Kwiek, Director, Center for Public Policy Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Chairholder, UNESCO Chair in Institutional Research and Higher Education Policy, University of Poznan, Poland

Facilitated Q&A

Closing

Keynote - Closing: The journey we have made and the journey still aheadProf Rolf Tarrach, President of the European University Association (EUA), Former Rector, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

13:30-14:45 Lunch and Poster Exhibition

14:45-16:15 Parallel Knowledge Exchange Forums

These sessions are designed to share practical lessons from successful intervention measures, and to disseminate effective practices, tools, advice and recommendations to ensure continued progress in mainstreaming gender in science.

KEF 1: Improving access to experts and knowledge

The aim of this session is to share knowledge and experience from three different initiatives: the FP7 funded GenPORT project, the Robert Bosch Foundation’s Academia Net database, and Elsevier’s Connect forum. The GenPORT project is creating a portal to quality knowledge resources on gender and science covering a wide range of areas. The Academia Net database features 2000 CVs of excellent women in STEM, as a resource for those seeking to recruit excellent women to leadership positions. Elsevier Connect is an on-line platform with daily stories for the global science, technology and health communities, reaching over 150,000 readers a month. The aim of this session is to share the lessons learned from these services how to inform and support different science communities and stakeholder groups in their endeavours, and how to best communicate about gender issues in science to reach a wider audience.

AcademiaNet: The Portal to Excellent Women AcademicsDr Katrin Rehak, Head of Section, Science and Research, Robert Bosch Foundation, Germany

Gender in Science - how to make people understand why it mattersAlison Bert, Editor in Chief, Elsevier Connect

KEF 2: Dealing with gender differences in the early stages of scientific careers

The under-representation of women at all levels of scientific careers and their over-representation in not tenured positions can be considered as a mirror of a wider and deeper problem, namely the lack of recognition of the relevance of gender in science and the ways in which it affects contents, methods and priorities. This clearly produces a growing negative impact on the quality of the research and its policies, as well as in the use of scientific results in economic and social terms. Indeed, the debate on gender and science shows that scientific careers continue to be characterised – albeit with important differences among the countries – by wide gender differences. The various forms of horizontal segregation (concerning training programmes and sectors of employment) intersect with the vertical segregation (the fact that women are poorly represented in apical positions), and the two phenomena raise and reinforce each other, highlighting the persistence of unequal job opportunities and careers for women in scientific research. Moreover, the “Leaky Pipeline” phenomenon shows that the effects of gender inequalities are not only given by a greater difficulty of access or of success to women, but also by the fact that, once they started a scientific career, they receive less professional support and face multiple risks of leakage than men. In addition to these phenomena, one should consider how gender differences matter in the increasing insecurity of scientific labour markets, women being present much more than men in positions that do not foresee a tenure track. Considering these elements, the proposed session aims to tackle gender asymmetries from the very beginning of scientific careers, both in STEM and SSH disciplines, since gender inequalities act upon both, very low and more highly feminised environments. In particular different perspectives will be offered to investigate how institutions and organisations – funding agencies, universities, public and private research organisations – can contribute to the gender imbalance already in early career stage. What are the gender biases a young researcher should be aware of? Are scientific organisations – universities and research centres – aware of gender biased processes and the unequal support that women receive in comparison to men already starting from the PhD? Which kind of actions can be implemented and how should priorities be set in a context of limited resources in research institutions? Five contributions will aim to answer these questions and to stimulate a broader discussion from very different angles, giving a complex picture of the gender imbalance in science.

Gender and Diversity in Scientific Organizations: a focus on the early stages of careers Prof Martina Schraudner, Director, Fraunhofer Center for Responsible Research and Innovation; Professor, the Techinical Univeristy, Berlin, Germanyand Angelika Trübswetter, Research Associate, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany

Results from the GARCIA project – Gendering the Academy and Research: combating Career Instability and AsymmetriesDr Annalisa Murgia, Research Fellow, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy and Assoc. Prof Barbara Poggio, Vice Rector and Responsible for Equality and Diversities Policies, University of Trento, Italy

The aim of this session is to share knowledge and provide guidelines on how to integrate gender dimension in study design. Extensive scientific evidence shows that gender bias in research is common and can produce outcomes of different quality for women and men. Horizon 2020 has, for the first time in the history of Framework Programmes, introduced gender dimension in study design as a recommended condition of success, with the relevance of sex-gender analysis identified for many topics. Efforts are being made to assemble the methodological know-how, as for example by the EU-Stanford Gendered Innovation project (www.genderedinnovations.stanford.edu), and guidelines to help researchers and others in the research process to tackle potential sources of gender bias in investigations. The speakers will describe their own work in the area and recommend the criteria to use when planning a project.

Good and bad ways to deal with sex-gender differences in biomarker and biobank research,and issues I would look for as an evaluator of planned studiesDr Ingvar Bergdahl, Associate Professor, Umeå University, and Scientific Secretary, Department of Biobank Research, Umeå University, Sweden

For a better integration of the gender dimension in Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017Prof Ineke Klinge, ‎Visiting Professor, Institute of Gender in Medicine (GiM), Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin and Chair of Horizon 2020 Advisory Group on Gender

The aim of this session is to share new knowledge of initiatives and projects, results, and practical experiences of mainstreaming gender into institutional policies and practices. GS7-Europe comes 15 years after the ETAN report, which recommended that gender equality should be mainstreamed into the Framework Programmes, and into Member State programmes that fund science and technology. The report provoked many organisations to take a closer look at their gender equality policies and practices. This session will show how far we have progressed towards realizing the envisaged benefits. Three different perspectives will be presented to show the effectiveness of the methods, the implementation gaps, and the prospects of achieving lasting change: 1) change through national-level institutional policies and measures; 2) change by forcing action through quotas; and 3) change through field-specific (Physics) targeted policies.

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the ERA: findings and policy recommendations from GENDER-NET ERA-NETDr Anne Pépin, Director, Mission for the Place of Women at CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France

KEF 5: Nordic Call for gendered science knowledge

This session will present the newly established Nordic initiative entitled Gender Gap in the Nordic Research and Innovation Area (NORIA). The initiative contains gendered statistics, research and an emphasis on impact. In addition, the session includes presentation from Norway and Sweden of the national initiatives, of the rationale for a joint Nordic initiative and how the Nordic initiative is understood in a national context.

Policies operate at many levels—nationally, in agencies, institutions, organizations and departments. At those many levels, policy has the potential to support gender equality wherein a gender lens can be appropriately applied in research and innovation and where science can benefit and benefit from the contributions of women and men. This panel will examine critical policy targets in three areas: funding agencies, publications, and hiring and promotion procedures. Funding agencies can, for example, put policies in place to provide support to conferences where programs broaden participation by the conscious inclusion of both men and women as major speakers. The policies of journals can also support these goals in the ways that they require availability and presentation of data (sex of animals and cells and reporting of data in disaggregated formats). Policies that require an open call for applications to positions and merit based review also have the potential to affect change. Research suggests, however, that implicit bias can have a major negative effect unless compensated for by elements such as “blind review.” An international panel will describe strategies for supporting the goals and solicit examples of effective country level strategies from session participants.